Otago Daily Times

‘Glad’ to be caught after wild driving

- ROB KIDD rob.kidd@odt.co.nz

WHEN Joshua Murray Annear, high on methamphet­amine, was pulled over by police after a spell of wild driving, he said he was glad he had been caught.

The 28yearold was in the grip of a drug addiction, the Dunedin District Court heard this week, and he knew he needed help.

He was arrested on May 24 after a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre on a blind corner between Balclutha and Milton.

Annear admitted the bad driving on the spot and the police said he was ‘‘noticeably twitchy’’.

He failed a compulsory impairment test and 0.7g of methamphet­amine, a pipe for smoking it and a cannabis bong were found in his car.

‘‘You made some comments to the officer you were ashamed about your behaviour and glad you were caught,’’ Judge John Macdonald said.

Annear was on bail at the time. In August last year he had been driving north over the Kilmog and had been stuck in a queue of traffic behind a slowmoving truck.

When the opportunit­y arose, the motorist in front of Annear overtook the vehicle but the impatient defendant passed them both, meaning at one stage they were three abreast on the road.

Once he got ahead, he braked heavily, almost causing traffic to slam into the back of his vehicle, before accelerati­ng into the distance.

‘‘Plainly you were upset for whatever reason, because you pulled into a layby and as he drove past threw an object which smashed his front headlight,’’ the judge said.

And his road rage was still not extinguish­ed.

Annear again sped up behind the victim.

‘‘He, no doubt, was concerned,’’ Judge Macdonald said.

When the man pulled off the road into his driveway, the defendant did, too.

Annear abused the 63yearold, punched him in the face, pushed him to the ground, sat on him and rubbed the man’s face in the gravel.

The victim had done ‘‘nothing at all’’ to deserve the violent treatment, Crown prosecutor Richard Smith said.

He suggested Annear should be jailed for the protection of the community, while counsel Shardae Oliver said that could be achieved through a sentence of home detention.

Despite five pages of previous conviction­s, the judge agreed with the latter.

He emphasised the fact the defendant had been out of the justice system for four years before his latest blunders which resulted in eight new driving, violence and drug conviction­s.

‘‘That gives me some hope I can properly treat this as some relapse directly related to your drug intake,’’ Judge Macdonald said.

Annear was sentenced to seven months’ home detention, banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay $100 for the damaged headlight.

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